Wake-Up Call: Beauprez decides against a Senate run

In politics, timing is everything. Timing and money -- big money, in the case of anyone who's going to take on barely incumbent Senator Michael Bennet, who's already raised over $2 million to retain an office he's held for fewer than eight months.

The money was a major obstacle in any run against Bennet in 2010, Bob Beauprez said when I saw him last month at Cheyenne Frontier Days. But still, he added, he was going to look into possibly getting into the race for the Republican nomination.

Look into it, and officially decide against it yesterday.

It wasn't just Bennet's two-million head start that was daunting.

There was also the two-year gap since Beauprez was in Congress. Back in 2006, as an incumbent Representative, he would have been in a good place to run against incumbent Representative Mark Udall for the Senate seat that Republican Wayne Allard was leaving. Instead, he went for the Governor's office, losing to Governor Bill Ritter.

Two million dollars, two years and one major loss later, Beauprez wasn't in nearly as good a position to go for a statewide race, and he decided to sit this one out. He says he wants to be in business with his son and, given the odds, that looks like a better investment.

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